Think Steve Jobs hasn’t done enough with his fortune for charity? U2’s Bono would like to disagree with you. The lead singer of Dublin’s most famous band has written a wonderful letter to the New York Times, praising Apple’s CEO for his work fighting AIDS in Africa.
Never heard of that work before? Sure you have: it’s in every (Product)RED Apple product you buy.
Here’s Bono’s letter in full:
Re “The Mystery of Jobs’s Public Giving,” by Andrew Ross Sorkin (DealBook, Aug. 30):
As a founder of (Product)RED, I’d like to point out that Apple’s contribution to our fight against AIDS in Africa has been invaluable. Through the sale of (RED) products, Apple has been (RED)’s largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — giving tens of millions of dollars that have transformed the lives of more than two million Africans through H.I.V. testing, treatment and counseling. This is serious and significant. And Apple’s involvement has encouraged other companies to step up.
Steve Jobs said when we first approached him about (RED), “There is nothing better than the chance to save lives.”
I’m proud to know him; he’s a poetic fellow, an artist and a businessman. Just because he’s been extremely busy, that doesn’t mean that he and his wife, Laurene, have not been thinking about these things. You don’t have to be a friend of his to know what a private person he is or that he doesn’t do things by halves.
BONO
Dublin, Sept. 1, 2011The writer, the lead singer of U2, is a co-founder of the advocacy group ONE and (Product)RED.